Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Medical Marijuana dispensary raid in San Francisco by DEA [post revised and updated] Emmalyn's California Cannabis Clinic at 1597 Howard Street in San Francisco. SSDP's Micah Daigle was on the scene and reported that all the local press were there. (Protesters were there as well.) Micah also reported that the DEA agents went in with a sledgehammer and crobar, so they certainly weren't there to talk. Later, DEA agents carried out tubs of marijuana and loaded it into a van. Note: Keep in mind that, if the dispensary was violating state law, or violating other federal laws, then this would not theoretically be any kind of repudiation of Holder's clear position to let state laws in medical marijuana occur without DEA interference. Thanks to Tom Angell in comments: Quote from the DEA "The documents relating to today's enforcement operation remain under court seal. Based on our investigation we believe there are not only violations of federal law, but state law as well. As of now we are prohibited from releasing further details of the case. Items of evidentiary value were seized and no arrests have been made. The investigation is currently ongoing," said DEA Special Agent in Charge Anthony D. Williams in a written statement. There's also some video at that link. Regardless of whether the dispensary was violating state law, this is extremely stupid. Having federal agents (all marked "DEA" and "Federal Agent") bust a dispensary is politically tone-deaf. A smart person in the Justice Department right now would say, regardless of the potential laws being broken, "if it's a dispensary, send only the state cops. We don't want people seeing the DEA logo at a dispensary." However, we didn't even see any state or local cops. I mean, really. Are the state cops that incompetent, that they can't bust a dispensary by themselves if state laws are being broken? Someone needs to be asking the state police why they are perceived as so incompetent by the feds that they're unable to enforce their own laws. 7:43:16 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Too dumb to get out of the rain New York Times "Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade," [Hillary Clinton] said, using unusually blunt language. "Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians." [...] She came bearing a new White House initiative, announced Tuesday, to deploy 450 law enforcement officers, and new equipment, along the border. For instance, Mrs. Clinton said, the United States will help supply Mexican law enforcement officers with helicopters and night-vision goggles and other equipment to take on the cartels, which are armed to the teeth. "We've got to figure out how to stop these bad guys," she said. "These criminals are outgunning the law enforcement officials." BBC "These aircraft will help Mexican police respond aggressively and successfully to the threats coming from the cartels," she said. [...] [Homeland Security Secretary Janet] Napolitano told the BBC on Wednesday that there had been a significant escalation of violence in Mexico, in part because of US efforts to clamp down on trafficking routes. But, she said: "The most important thing is that the federal government of Mexico is now battling these cartels, and they weren't in the past. And as a result the violence between the cartels and the government of Mexico has really increased." NY Times: [Clinton] mentioned the litany of failed efforts, going back to First Lady Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" campaign. She talked about a shortage of drug treatment centers. And she said a lack of health insurance prevented many drug addicts from getting proper treatment. "Clearly what we have been doing has not worked," she said. "It is unfair for our incapacity to have effective polices that will either better interdict drug traffic or lower demand for the illegal drugs, or intercept the weapons, to be creating a situation where people are holding Mexican government and people responsible." Sigh... No. I don't expect our government to have the political will at this time to step up and say that it's prohibition that causes all this grief. Conservatives blame the druggies. Liberals blame themselves for their failure to come up with the right programs to stop the druggies. But the druggies don't exist. Oh, sure, there are people who use and people who abuse drugs, and individually you can interact with them. But the concept of "the druggies" that is in the mind of the politician is a fantasy. It's the notion of a limited and specific set of players that can be targeted, appealed to, cured, and/or apprehended. Total nonsense. Drug use is. You can't appeal to it, arrest it, or treat it. You may as well try to stop the rain. So while these politicians think that they're dealing with "the druggies," they're actually battling the laws of economics, which are no more amenable to their pleas, threats, or interventions than the law of gravity is to a request to keep the rain from falling. So yes, we're sending helicopters to battle... what? 7:10:28 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Tarika Wilson's life bought 8 hours of training Well, that's something, at least... LIMA, Ohio - In the aftermath of the fatal shooting of a Lima woman by a police sergeant, community members agreed the police department needed to get back to talking to residents and getting to know the neighborhoods it patrols. To that end, all 80 sworn officers and 25 civilian employees at the Lima Police Department are undergoing eight hours of training this week in community-oriented policing. Link 6:11:07 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []